I haven't taken any psychedelic drugs myself, but I'm here to find out how to help a family member who has taken 5-meo-dmt twice. The first time, he had pleasant after-effects lasting about 3 weeks. He took it again a week ago, and he's still having severe flashbacks which are frightening (for him and those around him). I want to find out what we can do to help him. His wife is usually around to calm him down, but I'd like to find out if there's a specialist he can see to prescribe something to stop the flashbacks, or if there's anything else we can do to help him recover. Any advice would be appreciated. I'll post this question again on the "5-MeO-DMT Concerns" when I have access to it.

Can you be more specific about his symptoms, other than just stating that he’s experiencing flashbacks? The more information you can give, the more helpful your responses will be.

During the flashbacks, he feels frightened, terrified. In the more intense relapses, he screams and yells for help.

Please see vovin's thread:

Why you should NOT take DMT

Please describe these "flashbacks". Is your friend having a full on 5-meo-dmt trip? Certain aspects? Is your friend using other substances, such as cannabis? I have a feeling your friend is having anxiety attacks and not flashbacks.

He's not taking any other substances. One flashback was severe; most have been minor. When it happens, he gets very afraid. I'm sure anxiety is a part of it, since he worries that the flashbacks won't stop coming. He feels an intense need to lie down, and he'll yell for help when it's severe. He has enough control over his faculties to call someone on the phone, but during a flashback, he can't stand or walk without help.

He was advised to let the experience happen and not try to fight it. Hopefully that will help. From what I've read on here, the episodes shouldn't last more than a few weeks. His wife is keeping an eye on him. Thanks for the interest here, folks. We'll see if this continues. If so, I may need some advice on whom he can see for help or what he can do to make the recurrences stop.

If he is not on other meds I would use a mixture of skullcap, valerian and kava brewed into a tea to calm any nervous tension and help sleep. Also they could try taking GABA and theanine as well until they can see someone about it. You can find all those herbs and supplements in stores.

Someone there may have information for you. It's possible that there are far more people with 5-meo experience at that forum. It sounds like you need some help from people who may have seen this before.

https://forums.5meodmt.org

If your family member likes to read, have him read this book, it might help him, especially in relating. The author of this book - his flashbacks were mostly during the nighttime when he was lying down, he goes into incredible depth describing it - both his MeO experience that had shaken him, followed by months of recurrences/flashbacks. Not trying to say this is what your family member is experiencing or that he's going to have this for months - but this book's an incredible read and the whole book is based around the authors post-MeO ..so some relatable material possibly. Oh, and the ending of the book for the author - everything ended up working itself out.

Hope that might help in some way, it's a great read. And outside of that, idk about personal advice tbh. I hope your family member finds his way.

It sounds like a textbook case of post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). There are a number of different ways of dealing with it depending on the severity. If episodes are fairly sporadic and it doesn't affect his day to day functioning at work or home, just get his friends and family to give support and encouragement and enough time deal with it. Most people heal; some with a few mental scars depending on how they integrate the experience.

If it is affecting his everyday functioning, he probably ought to do something about it as it might just snowball bigger and bigger. He could see a psychologist / therapist specialising in PTSD and try things like CBT, EMDR etc or whatever is the current treatment standard for PTSD.

I would advice him to avoid medication for the problem unless it were absolutely necessary. I might be wrong but I believe MDMA is sometimes prescribed for PTSD. Just don't let him self medicate if he reads up on this bit of information.

I'll second that, there are some people familiar with 5meoDMT's peculiarities there.

I didn't initials read your post because of the flashback word in the title; I assumed it had something to do with LSD and hppd or whatever they call it.

I can attest to the nature of 5meoDMT, and it is known to have this effect on people, it's even been given a name: "reactivation", by some proponents and practitioners. I feel that the substance saved my life, through a transformative experience which gave me an experiential awareness of something far greater than myself but of which at the same time I am an intrinsic part of. It was the most powerful event of my life, and it shattered my reality wholly and completely. I began to experience what your friend is.

I would have spontaneous visions of an esoteric nature that could not relate in any way to any kind of consensus reality. Western materialist culture meant less than nothing, being a part of it was hard. I had no people around me that could relate, the only literature i could find was of religious nature, and I wasn't interested in that.

Finally I joined this community and found many others that had had similar experiences and had learned how to integrate it into their lives in a productive sense. Eventually, I learned how to do so myself through a long process of trial and error, the Braille approach I guess. Several years later, I feel that my life is the best it's ever been, with my actions rooted in love and thoughts motivated by understanding like it never could have been without that experience, but it took lots of perseverance and work to get there.

What your friend went through, in all likelihood, is not something that needs to be medicated but rather talked about. And talked about, and talked about. It cannot be quantified in any empirical sense, imagine finding out all if the sudden that everything they ever said was true. Now what questions would you have?

My advice is to join the community. Direct him here, and to the other site. Ask him to get a therapist, and to interview then until he finds one that shares his world view if the experience opened up psychological wounds.

If, on the other hand, he has latent psychosis and you think it may be triggered, i.e. if he's a danger, then disregard this and get professional attention.

Chances are, he just met God, and is a little freaked out.

Just to clarify, there are medical trials being conducted by MAPSof MDMA assisted psychotherapy. This treatment is not being prescribed as such just yet. Check the MAPS website for further details, but I would say this is not the droid you're looking for.

Im confused by this. Are the flashbacks a result of using 5-meo or was he using it to treat his flashbacks from an diffent tramatic experience. I ask because i have a friend whos suffering
flashbacks from a tramatic experience she suffered as a child and has been using mushrooms to treat her PTSD. Shes asked on a couple of occasions to try nn-dmt but ive been hesitant to let her since i think that might make things worse.. id be more inclined to give her an aya brew session before smoke dmt but shes on meds and i dont want to mix those with an maoi

I came across this while researching "Dictylomoa Incanescens" as a plant for 5 MEO.

"It seems like some people have anxiety and after affects, these never seem to go longer than a couple of weeks". It is YouTube, so YMMV.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5HeVoayMV_k